When Eve Alintuck and Josh Morton met at age 9 in Wellesley, Mass., the two friends couldn’t have known that 35 years later, they’d launch Barrow’s Intense, a ginger-flavored liquor brand that would get national distribution. Morton, a home distiller took his product to market in February 2013, self-distributing it until April 2014, when they were picked up by Serralles USA, a liquor distributor who handles Don Q Rum, Death’s Door Distillery, and Caliche Rum. Within three months, Barrow’s expanded into 20 states, and then 31 states the following year.

“It’s really important that you know yourself and you create a business that mirrors who you are because you’re going to live it, so if it’s outside of who you are, it’s going to be that much more of a struggle. Figure out what yours are and wrap your company around those to drive yourself forward,” says Josh.

4 Steps to Success:

1. Intensity. “The medium is the message. The product and packaging make a cohesive statement, leaving a clear-cut and cognitive footprint. It’s real simple. The product itself is intense. The taste and the experience goes back to looking at the product from 30,000 feet up. Everything we present needs to be clear-cut and reflect a cohesiveness of intensity,” says Eve Alintuck.

2. Action. “There’s the grunt work of starting a brand, and then there’s the idea that you’re always working, and the amount of effort that’s required to grow a company is not the same as a job, but it takes over in a different way. You need to be able and aware to jump on opportunities,” says Josh Morton.

3.Playfulness. “Purists need not apply. Be flexible, but strong. Encourage interbreeding with others from the get-go. Barrow’s Intense Ginger Liqueur distinguishes itself from the pack by playing well in the pack without sacrificing its signature character,” says Alintuck.

4. Meticulous Informality. “Be hardcore about quality and brand, but avoid fussiness like the plague. What the world needs now is love, not another precious liqueur,” says Alintuck.